A worthwhile odyssey into familiar territory

Ireland may have got over the recession – that, at least, is our story and we appear to be sticking to it – but Irish writers, those stubborn refuseniks, have not. Recently, writers as various as Donal Ryan, Kevin Barry, Lisa McInerney, Sara Baume and Colin Barrett have reminded us that beneath the neoliberal gloss of contemporary Ireland, and beyond the Pale, lurks a country of stasis, deprivation and loss.